Dana White says UFC won't counter-program Bellator 106 pay-per-view

BOSTON – Don’t expect the UFC to cram another show onto its already busy end-of-year schedule to compete with Bellator MMA.

UFC President Dana White on Thursday told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) there will be no counter-programming of the Nov. 2 Bellator 106 event featuring Quinton Jackson vs. Tito Ortiz in its headliner.

White, after all, isn’t exactly anticipating a lot of interest in the fight card, which is Bellator’s first offering in the pay-TV market.

“I’m sure you guys saw when they did their press conference, all they talked about was me,” White said following a news conference for Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 26 event in Boston. “What are they going to talk about? That fight? ‘Well, you guys have lost your last 10 fights, uh … how do you think this fight is going to go? Well, I can tell you this: One of us is going to win. Somebody’s ‘O’ has got to go.”

Such a response would be expected from the UFC executive, who doesn’t always have the kindest words for his competitors. But in the past, he’s gone so far as to mount an event on less than a month’s notice.

UFC Fight Night 14, which took place July 19, 2008, was put together to counter the now-defunct Affliction, which held a major event featuring the legendary Fedor Emelianenko.

This time around, White is feeling a little less threatened.

“Obviously, they need money, and good for them,” he said. “Let them do their thing. I’m not [worried] at all about it.

That feeling extends to the promotion at large, though White wasn’t overjoyed to hear Bjorn Rebney’s recent criticism of the UFC.

“‘How’s your competitive spirit feeling?’ My video blog does more viewers than their television show does,” he said. “I’m not feeling very competitive.

“I saw that ‘Bjork’ was talking some smack. I’m like, dude, just shut up and run your business. That’s over, man. You probably should have done that in the beginning when you had some legs to stand on. You need to shut up and run your business. They’re hurting.”

Pressed later for his assessment of Bellator’s standing in the MMA marketplace, White said, “They don’t know what they’re doing, and they try to copy things instead of being original and doing original things. They’re not involved in this because they love the sport and they’re looking to push the sport forward and trying to do all these things. They’re in it because they want to make money.”

Bellator officials did not immediatley respond to a request for comment.

For more on the Bellator and UFC schedules, stay tuned to the MMA Rumors section of the site.

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